Bioactive Triterpenes from the Root of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge

Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza) is a well‐known medicinal herb in the oriental medicine. The current study on bioactive triterpenoid in the root of S. miltiorrhiza led to the isolation of a new highly hydroxylated ursane‐type triterpene, urs‐12‐ene‐2α,3β,7β,16α‐tetraol (1) and five known ones including 2β‐hydroxypomolic acid (2), maslinic acid (3), asiatic acid (4), ursolic acid (5), and oleanolic acid (6). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analyses and comparison with literature data. The antiproliferative testing against HL‐60 cells revealed that the new compound 1 and ursolic acid (5) showed weak and moderate activities with IC₅₀ values of 42.2 and 11.7 μM. In addition, compounds 1–3 showed inhibitory effect on ghrelin activity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.